malaria could spur war on all diseases

Doug Conway, AAP Senior Correspondent
From: AAP November 01, 2012 2:29PM

THE search for new medicines to beat drug-resistant malaria could spur developments in the fight against other diseases.

"Malaria could be the tide that lifts all the boats," said Dr Alan Magill, director of the malaria program for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

He told an international malaria conference in Sydney on Thursday that the goal was not only to find new drugs to treat malaria, but to find "quality medicines for all patients with all diseases".

Dr Magill said sub-standard, poor quality and counterfeit drugs had encouraged malaria drug resistance, which has been detected in the Greater Mekong region of Cambodia, Thailand, Burma and Vietnam.

Experts have warned of a potential 25 per cent spike in deaths, particularly if that strain reaches Africa. That equates to some 200,000 more lives lost each year.

Latest World Health Organisation (WHO) figures for 2010 show 216 million cases of malaria resulting in 655,000 deaths, although unofficial estimates put that figure at up to 900,000, the vast bulk of them in Africa.

In the Asia-Pacific 30 million people contract the disease each year, resulting in 42,000 deaths.

Dr Magill said the Asia-Pacific had a global responsibility to address the drug resistance in a "very aggressive fashion".

As a manufacturer of much of the world's anti-malaria tools, the region also had a responsibility to produce high quality products, such as bed nets treated with insecticide.

The conference has heard that while the world seeks the next generation of drugs, more must be done to contain or slow down the spread of drug-resistant malaria.

Experts have told the meeting it could be five years before a new drug is produced.

The cost of finding and developing new drugs has been estimated at $1 billion over 10 years.

The conference, attended by ministers from 10 Asia-Pacific countries, winds up on Friday with a ministerial action meeting hosted by Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr.